Posts Tagged ‘Dallas’

This is not much of a picspam since I was only able to attend for a couple hours in the morning and my photos did not turn out great (apparently I’m good at vert shots but not other events). D-Town Throwdown took place on October 17 in the middle of downtown Dallas and featured three skateboard disciplines: vert, street, and downhill. On top of the competitions, there was a freestyle motocross demo, concerts, and live art. There was also a mini-ramp set up for attendees to do some skating of their own.

The downhill event took place inside a parking garage. Qualifiers ran all day and included a diversity of riders. In the end, Billy Bones took the win with his grandparents watching.Trying to catch a shot of racers out of the chute was a bit tricky.

Unlike many of my fellow Dallasites, going to the State Fair of Texas was never a tradition of mine. Then I discovered that Big Time Actionsports put on a BMX show every year. This time I went on a weekend so I had to fight the crowds. I planted myself in front of the open loop transfer with the hope of getting a sick shot, but that was easier said than done. The position wasn’t ideal for anything else so I didn’t get many photos. It was a great learning experience for photography (especially since my settings weren’t good either).

Boy do I have a lot of X Games content to share. I’m really eager to get to them, but with yesterday being “Go Skate Day”, I remembered that I hadn’t gone around to writing about the Jeff Phillips Tribute at 4DWN from last month. Unfortunately, it was when Texas was being pounded by rain so I missed the little bit of vert that happened. There was still some great action indoors from the locals. My camera set-up wasn’t ideal, and I learned that shooting street/park is a completely different ordeal. However, a nice gentleman gave me some tips on how to follow a skater and catch the right moment.

Despite the weather, lots of people came out to honor Jeff’s memory and support the Suicide and Crisis Center. For more photos from this year’s event and the one from 2013, check out my Flickr album.

The State Fair of Texas is a 127-year-old tradition in Dallas. In more recent years, Big Time Actionsports has come out to do BMX demos. The guys perform three shows a day, six days a week for three weeks plus one additional weekend. I finally was able to make it out to the Fair this year, and I managed to bypass almost all the yummy fried food for the action (I hadn’t eaten lunch so I did make a detour).

This past November, I got to attend Boneless One 3, the Jeff Phillips tribute. I had been looking forward to the event for month not just because this was my first chance to do action sports photography, but also because proceeds would benefit The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. It’s always great when you can have fun for a good cause.

While I was geeking it up at Dallas Comic Con two weeks ago, Overground Skateboarding was hosting their 2nd annual tribute to legend Jeff Phillips. I was really bummed that I didn’t hear about it until afterwards (probably would have skipped DCC) because it sounded like a cool event and it was benefited The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Dallas.

Back in the 1980s, when Dallas was a skateboarding hot spot, Jeff Phillips was one of the biggest names. He gave Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk a run for their money and proved that you could win a vert contest without pulling a McTwist. The Phillips 66 (an inverted flip with a fakie approached) is named after him, and the tribute name, Boneless One, comes from his signature trick: a frontside boneless. Jeff ran his own skatepark and dedicated his life to the local skate scene. In 1993, Jeff committed suicide.
Rolling Stone did an feature on his life and the circumstances surrounding his death (personal troubles and the decline of the sport). We’ll never know what happened, but in the end, that’s not what is important. It’s his life and his love of skateboarding that everyone who came out to Boneless One celebrated. Even if the Dallas scene is not what it used to be, I’d like to think that it is very much alive and that Jeff would be proud.Jeff Phillips doing a frontside boneless on the Jan. ’85 cover ofThrasher

A personal note I want to add: I am here for anybody who has thought about taking their own life and needs someone to talk to. I may not know you or know what to say, but I’ve been in that dark place and being part of the action sports community did help pull me out.

I found an article on the blog of Cole Giordano, a photographer and skater who was featured in the piece and more recently in Freshly Pressed. It was about the skateboarding scene in the Hudson Valley and the pros and cons of the sports popularity. It made me think about my relationship with the sport. You can read the article in the November/December 2011 issue of The Hook.

Despite the title of this post, skateboarding has always been cool to me, and I actually got into as it started to become more popular. As much as I enjoyed all the action sports broadcasts on TV and the availability of skatewear (I’ve always liked the fashion aesthetic), I miss how it was sort of a secret passion of mine. While I never hid my love of action sports, I embraced the fact that few people knew about the X Games. It gave me an opportunity to introduce them to something different. Now the response is more like, “Oh, you’re into skateboarding. That’s… unexpected” and the person has already judged you for liking something “extreme”. I also really hated how the popular girls suddenly found skater guys attractive and how suddenly skater girls had to change their image to be more appealing (read: feminine).

The Hook article reminded me of a piece in the Dallas Observer about how skateboarding has drastically changed throughout the years. I had no idea that Dallas had a skate scene, and it was interesting to learn how skateboarding had gone from an underground sport to a P.E. elective as it relates to my city. It’s a good history lesson for anybody curious about skate culture.

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